Black Forest Cake

Many years ago, I scribbled the following recipe (and subsequently altered it somewhat) from an article about the Schwarzwald in the flight magazine on Air Canada - or was it Canadian Airlines?

This Black Forest Cake is far superior to the travesties that are sold commercially. It might look like it's complicated to make, but it's not really hard at all. Oh yes, and the vitamins in the cherries cancel out the cream calories; so it isn't bad for you!

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Icing

We call this eggless cake Patrushka Cake and got the recipe from my sister's Godmother. However, I have heard that it is sometimes called one pan or wacky cake because it has no eggs and does not require a greased pan: it can be made in the pan it will be cooked in. . . . It makes the best chocolate cake I've ever had.

Preparation

Pour batter into an 8inch square UNGREASED cake panor make a double recipe to bake in two 9inch round UNGREASED pans at 350F for 30 minutes or til a cake tester comes out cleanly.

Tip: If you are making a layered cake, it is easier to remove the cakes from the pans if you line the bottom of the pans with parchment paper.

This cake is really moist and really good. I use it when I make Black Forest Cake but it is also excellent with ordinary icing. Some people serve it without any icing at all and haven't received too many complaints. It also makes very good cupcakes.

Brownies

These are arguably the best brownies ever... one of the keys to their success is the use of room-temperature ingredients. This is pretty much exactly the same as "Brownies Cockaigne" in The Joy of Cooking (1975 edition) by Irma S. Rombauer.

turn oven to 350F

Ingredients

revised June 2008: added how much chocolate to use

for one BUTTERED 9"x13" rectangular pan

½ c unsalted butter

4 squares (4 oz) unsweetened chocolate

4 eggs, room temperature

¼ tsp salt

2 c white sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 c unbleached all-purpose sifted flour

½ c Thompson raisins

Preparation

Turn oven to 350F. Melt butter and chocolate in a double boiler set over gently simmering water. When melted, set aside to cool. (Ms. Rombauer says that if the chocolate/butter mixture is not allowed to cool, the brownies will end up "heavy and dry"

Butter the pan. Sprinkle lightly with flour - knock it back and forth to distribute the flour evenly over the pan. Set aside.

Whisk eggs (make sure they are room-temperature!) and salt until foamy and light in colour.

Whisk in sugar (½ cup at a time) and vanilla until the mixture is creamy.

Ensure that the chocolate/butter mixture is well cooled. Add it to the egg/sugar mixture. With as few strokes as possible, using a wooden spoon or rubber scraper, stir in the chocolate until it is almost fully encorporated. (Ms. Rombauer says that while using a mixer for the previous steps, it is absolutely essential to do this and the following steps by hand.)

Add the flour and gently fold it in until it is almost uniformly coloured.

Add the raisins and stir in until the flour is fully mixed into the batter.

Pour batter into the 9"x13" rectangular BUTTERED cake panand bake at 350F for 25 minutes or til a cake tester comes out cleanly. Allow to cool completely before cutting.